TEMPE, Ariz. -- Nothing can stop James Harden right now -- except five fouls.
Arizona State's star guard had 22 points and eight rebounds as the 19th-ranked Sun Devils defeated Jackson State 81-60 on Thursday night, despite fouling out with 4:10 to play.
Harden led the Sun Devils in scoring for the 31st time in 41 career games.
"I'm starting to get back into a groove," said Harden, who has scored 86 points in his last 68 minutes. "I'm playing a lot better and obviously shooting the ball real well. It's just being in attack mode, being more aggressive."
Harden has been one of the nation's hotter players, earning Pac-10 player-of-the-week honors each of the last two weeks.
Jeff Pendergraph had 19 points and Rihards Kuksiks added 16 for the Sun Devils (6-1), off to their best start since they went 11-1 to open 2004-05.
Garrison Johnson scored 21 points and Grant Maxey added 15 for Jackson State (1-7), which missed its first nine 3-point shots and finished 2-of-16 from beyond the arc.
This was the eighth straight road game for the weary Tigers, who move on to Lawrence, Kan., to face Kansas on Saturday. The Tigers won't play at home until Jan. 10 -- their 14th game of the season.
"We played decent," Jackson State coach Tevester Anderson said. "Our legs are tired. We've been on the road all year long.
"There are times that we played with them. But they're a better team than we are."
The Sun Devils wasted little time taking command against the overmatched Tigers. ASU led 17-14 when Pendergraph scored to launch a 14-0 run, with Harden scoring the last eight points.
Harden hit a 3-pointer from the right wing, then converted a three-point play and made a jumper to put ASU ahead 31-14.
"He knows when to turn it up," Pendergraph said.
The Tigers didn't go quietly. Down 16 at the half, Jackson State began to rally after Harden went to the bench with his fourth foul early in the second half.
The Tigers pulled within 11 points with 13:41 remaining. But Pendergraph dunked on an alley-oop pass from Derek Glasser, then blocked a shot at the other end, and the Sun Devils cruised from there, even with Harden on the bench for most of the second half because of the trouble.
"I think it was a positive that we responded the way we did," ASU coach Herb Sendek said. "But our guys still know that we're better with James, and that didn't go away because we increased the lead for a few minutes tonight when he was in foul trouble."
Harden was 7-of-10 from the field, including 4-of-5 from beyond the arc.
Harden is tough to stop when he penetrates, but lately he's been deadly from long range, hitting 14 of his last 18 3-point attempts.
That's a big change from Harden's season-opening slump; Harden made only two of his first 14 3-point attempts but said he never lost confidence in his stroke.
"The first couple games, it was minor adjustments with my form," Harden said. "All of them felt real good, just rattled in and out, or some of them were at the end of the shot clock. I wasn't really worried."
After playing four of its first six games away from Wells Fargo Arena, Arizona State will spend the rest of the month in the Phoenix area.
The Sun Devils host Nebraska on Sunday, and unlike Jackson State, the Cornhuskers won't be a gimme. They pounded ASU 62-47 in Lincoln last year.
"They killed us last year at their house," Harden said. "They played pretty well. We've got a little chip on our shoulder against them."
